Matthew: First question, and I always ask this, how are you doing today?

Coach Jones: I’m good, how are you?

Matthew: Good. All right, so tell us your position at Norman North and what you teach.

Coach Jones: I am the head football coach. I also teach computer applications for first and second hours.

Matthew: Awesome. Okay, why did you come to Norman North, and what was your goal when you got here?

Coach Jones: Well, I think for me, the goal was to continue to advance professionally [and] for me to be able to have a chance to come into a program like Norman North and compete at the 6A level. [That] was certainly something that piqued my interest. Obviously, the job that I had was a really good one. But I think this was one of the jobs that I’d always had in mind [and one] that I wanted to look at. And if I ever had the chance to be the head coach here, [I would want] to be able to do that. And so, you know, we made that leap of faith as a family and jumped to this and that’s what brought me here.

Matthew: So what did you do before you came to Norman North?

Coach Jones: Before I was the football coach at Norman North, I was the head football coach at Bishop McGuinness [Catholic High School] in Oklahoma City. So I was there for the last seven years. There, I taught a leadership class. Prior to that, I was at Woodward High School in the panhandle, where I was the head coach for three years. And then before that, I was at Edmond North as a defensive coordinator. Then prior to that, I was at Westmoore as the receivers coach. So I’ve been all over the state.

Matthew: Now it sort of makes sense why you were so involved with the defense last year. Anyway, what do you do in your free time?

Coach Jones: I’m a dad. You know, I’ve got three kids. And so keeping up with my son’s events, my son plays three different sports: I’m able to coach him in baseball, but get to watch him play basketball. And then obviously, he plays football as well. So that’s my hobby. My daughter is a cheerleader, and I’ve got a 19-month-old that just runs the household. So keeping up with them three is really my hobby. And then, you know, I’m also really involved within [the Oklahoma Football Coaches Association] in trying to advance our game and protect athletes and do a lot of those things.

Matthew: What happened last year as far as how our team finished and how our players performed?

Coach Jones: Well, I think a lot of people define a successful football program and a successful football team by wins and losses, and obviously, if you define us just by the wins and losses, you know, we’re not really happy with where we’re at. But I think that last year was very instrumental into building the program that we’re going to build here. And, you know, when you look at the way our season went with the expectations coming from where this program had been, it exposed a lot of things and for us as coaches that was kind of a wake up call, as we evaluated [and] reflected back on the season. And so we know things that we have to address as we move forward. But I don’t necessarily always define a football season by wins and losses. What I look back on is “do we build relationships with our players, did players build relationships with coaches? Did our guys gain a sense of accomplishment in different areas of their lives, how many of our football guys are going to move on and go to college or use football as an avenue to college, and even if they don’t use football, that have that wherewithal and that ability to deal with adversity and move forward. And so from that standpoint, I think we had a successful year; you know, obviously, we all want to win games, and those things are going to come. But we’ve got to go through years, like we had this year, to get where we want to be. And, you know, for me, I define it as a successful year in some years, and a very unsuccessful year in others.

Matthew: Would you have done anything differently from last year, and what do you plan on changing this offseason leading into next season from last year?

Coach Jones: I think the biggest mistake that I made as a head coach was trying to adapt to too much of the current program that was here. And, you know, what I mean by that is there are a lot of things that, you know, if I could step back on campus again the first time, that maybe I change. I think one of the things that we were not very good with, or I was not very good with as a head coach, is allowing a lack of discipline in certain areas of our program. And I think, you know, that kind of had a trickle-down effect to a lot of the other things that went on. And so obviously, for us, there’s two areas that we want to address that has nothing to do with X’s and O’s. The first thing we want ot address is discipline team-wide. We want to make sure that guys do the right thing, and that they live up to, you know, what our mission statement says, which is we’re going to be the, you know, hardest working, best conditioned, most disciplined team in the state of Oklahoma. And so that’s our first priority as we go forward. You know, the second priority for me is to create… you know, we use the term family a lot, but I don’t know that we’re truly a family. And so trying to find ways to make our team more cohesive, to build relationships, not just coaches, but player to player, and create more of a family atmosphere in our program to where we could work hard, we can hold each other accountable, but there are truly genuine relationships that are created.  And so those are the two big launching points for us as we move in and gear up for the season. Those are the two platforms that we’re going to start with, and we’re going to really make sure we have both of those things right as we move forward.

Matthew: Right. Okay, as a head coach, what is your objective opinion of how the coaching staff performed this year? And what part of the game does Norman North need to work on?

Coach Jones: Well, so that’s a very complex question. You know, when you look at the objectivity of the coaching staff, obviously, I really like, you know, the coaching staff that we have, I think those guys put a lot of heart and sweat equity into our program and making us what we needed to be; [they] put a lot of hours in, you know, we had 50 to 60 to 70 page scouting reports every week for each opponent. So I think from that standpoint, our assistants did an admirable job. You know, I think every one of those guys, including myself, as a part of the coaching staff, we have to do a better job of motivating our players, we’ve got to continue to do a great job of getting to know our players. And then we’ve got to continue to do a great job of knowing our personnel, putting our players in the best position that we can for them to be successful, you know, and then I think as far as schematics, and you look at those things, I think those things are going to constantly change. But the second year in our offensive system, I think, will help. And then obviously, we’re going to tweak both the offense and defense to make it more user friendly, or player friendly, to where, you know, less is more to a certain extent, and maybe not quite follow the kiss philosophy of ‘keep it simple, stupid,’ because I don’t think you can win football games doing that, but maybe using the kill philosophy of ‘keep it likable and learnable.’ And those are things that we want to do both in our offense and our defense, you know, to help us be more successful. And that’s how we’ll attack scheme as we move forward. And then, what do we need to do better? Well, you know, the first thing, you know, when we talk about discipline and we talk about the launching point of being a family, I think the third platform for us when it comes to schematics is we have to take care of the football. We got to do a much better job of not having turnovers and not taking negative yard plays. And that happens really in all three phases. And then defensively, you know, we got to get off the field at a higher rate. And so I think if we can do those from a schematic standpoint, it’s going to help change the trend, and so when you look at that, you return more often some guys this year than what we will defensively, and so next year is going to be about trying to increase the experience on defense as fast as we can, because when we step on the field, we’re playing some really good offenses this next year. Our opponents, you know, two of our opponents [went to] state championship games, and so looking at the type of talent that those teams returned, it’s pretty high. And so for us, we’ve got some big time challenges. And so how do we overcome that? We’ve got to gain experience through discipline, and discipline will help win us more games than what we won this year.

Matthew: Okay, so looking back, and you sort of already answered this, but just to clarify, looking back, what advice would you give coach Jones leading into your first season at Norman North?

Coach Jones: Well, I think again, to answer the red flags that you see. To make sure that you do it the way that you know it needs to be done. I’m big on leadership, but I’m also big on adapting, and so understanding that there’s a difference between adapting to a new school and sacrificing some of your principles or things that you know you have to have in order to win football games and to be a great program. And so for me to come in on the back end, or with hindsight, is to address some of those issues early. And it’s to force the coaching staff to see some of those things instead of, you know, because everything’s new and you want to keep everything positive, skimming over some of those things. So to be very candid with you, that’s what I would look at and what I would go back and redress. And then, you know, I think the last thing for me in hindsight is we probably put too much in, both from an offense and a defensive perspective. And if I could come back and do it over again, we would really restrict what we were doing so that we would have been better fundamentally.

Matthew: Right. So this is a subjective question. Who are you looking to as a team leader this year?

Coach Jones: Well, you know, obviously there’s a lot of guys in that room, and I think leadership’s a very dynamic topic, but one of the things that we asked every player in their exit interview or guys that we feel like or the team feels like needs to lead. I think we had several guys named, but I think a guy like [tight end] Jake Roberts is a guy that’s going to have to step up and be a great leader. A guy like [outside linebacker] Logan Furnish up front is going to have to step in and be a great leader. And then you got guys like [middle linebacker] Jake Landers and [defensive lineman] Jaken McDonald, who returned with quite a bit of experience on the defensive side. And so there are several guys that we’re looking to, and we’ll try to cultivate that when we get back in the offseason. We’re going to start a leadership council that I’ll hand-select, and I’ll pick guys from every grade level, but we’re looking to have between 12 and 16 guys that are going to spend time talking about what leadership is, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like, from a high school player’s perspective. And so we’ll try to do that; to plant the seeds of, you know, galvanizing our locker room a lot stronger than we did last year.

Matthew: Last serious question. Have you ever had any players who received scholarships or will play after high school both from your coaching job at Bishop McGuinness [high school] and Norman North [high school]?

Coach Jones: Yeah, you know, we’ve had several guys at Bishop McGuinness that went on to play NCAA Division I football. Last year we had a left tackle that now is playing at Georgia and actually played significant time this year in Georgia as a true freshman. Owen Condon was his name. We’ve had quarterbacks, or one of our quarterbacks, that played at Princeton and started there. We’ve had, you know, a lot of guys [go] to some of our state schools. Drake University, San Diego, Arkansas, the University of Oklahoma. So we’ve had players in my career that we’ve coached that have gone on to play at higher levels, This year we’ll have the opportunity, obviously… Cole will go to Memphis and he’s going to early-enroll there, so he’ll be one from Norman North that continues on. Then we’ll have have a number of other guys that I think will have the opportunity to play some small school football if they choose to, and a lot of that recruiting season will kind of get generated between now and February. So I’m excited to see what guys here will have that opportunity. But yeah, I mean, a lot of guys that we’ve had went on and done some great things and are playing at a very high level. So you know as a coach, that makes me proud. I have very little to do with their God-given ability and the talent that they have, and they did a lot of that themselves, but [I’m] proud to have been able to coach those guys and really proud to watch them on Saturdays.  

Matthew: Did you play any sports in high school, and if so, what sport and what position?

Coach Jones: So I finished as a single sport guy my senior year and just played football. But coming up, I played baseball… I was a first-baseman. And then I caught a little bit as a catcher. Then, you know, wrestled very little as a young guy, and then I just started to select my sport, and that’s one of the biggest regrets I have. Looking back at my high school career, I wish I would have continued to play all three sports throughout my entire career. For me, it worked out, because I went on to play college football at the University of Central Oklahoma and played linebacker there for four years. So I still got to go and compete at the college level, but you know, looking back, my one regret from high school is that I didn’t play multiple sports. And so my advice to young people or high school students is [to] play as many sports as you can.

Matthew: What other sports do you enjoy either coaching or [playing]?

Coach Jones: Just looking at… you know, basketball is a fun game to watch, so I’m a huge basketball fan. I love watching it. I was never very good at it, you know, but I love watching that. As far as playing, I like to golf. That’s one of my favorite hobbies or things to do. So you know, now that I’m this age, those are the two [sports] that I really enjoy. Obviously, I enjoy watching football, love playing golf, and then it’s always fun for me to be able to coach baseball, and I would only do that if my son was playing. But that’s been a pretty cool time for us to bond and to do that. He’s only nine, but nine-year-old baseball’s like herding cats as a coach. But it’s pretty fun.

Matthew: Awesome. All right, who will win the FBS national championship: Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, or Oklahoma? My feelings won’t be hurt if you don’t say Oklahoma.

Coach Jones: If Oklahoma had a little stronger defense, I would probably pick Oklahoma because I think they have the best offense in the nation. I think the best defense, to be honest with you, resides with Clemson. I think the most complete team is probably Alabama. And so if I had to pick somebody right now, the easy pick would be Alabama, but I would actually pick Clemson to win the national championship.

Matthew: All right. Then, in your opinion, was the o-line from last year or the d-line from last year better?

Coach Jones: They both did really good things and they both did things that weren’t great. But I think that you know, it’s hard for me to say whether [the o-line or the d-line] was better because I think it changed from game to game and play to play.

Matthew: Okay. Coach Jones, that is it. So we will get out of your hair and publish this interview as soon as we can.

Coach Jones: Perfect. I appreciate it.